Fluoride on tap today: Most county residents to get fluoridated water from faucets after long delay

The article below, which appeared in Monday's North County
Times, incorrectly reported the amount of fluoride that
Metropolitan Water District began adding to local water supplies
Monday. The agency said it intends to add fluoride to reach 0.7 to
0.8 parts per million. The story below has been corrected.

We apologize.

Sixty-two years after fluoridation was introduced in the United
States, fluoridated water is scheduled to start flowing out of the
faucets of most San Diego County residents today.

It's a reality that thrills many public health officials and
dentists, but infuriates many other people.

Fluoridation proponents, including the California Department of
Public Health, the California Dental Association and the National
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have said for decades
that fluoridation is a proven, safe, effective way to prevent
rampant cavities and dental disease, and the other illnesses they
can exacerbate.

"We're ecstatic; it's only been 12 years," said David Nelson,
referring to California's 1995 legislation ordering fluoridation.
Nelson is an oral surgeon who has been the paid consultant and main
advocate of the California Department of Health Services'
fluoridation effort.

"This could reduce the burden of dental decay by as much as 20
percent to 40 percent," he said.

But fluoridation's intense opponents, including San Diego's
Citizens for Safe Drinking Water, and some chemists, dentists and
worried citizens, say putting fluoride in water supplies is forcing
medication on the public that is ineffective against cavities, but
which could cause all kinds of chronic ailments.

"I've invested in an expensive fluoride removal filter system,"
said Richard Sauerheber, a chemist and fluoridation opponent who
tutors in math and sciences at Palomar College in San Marcos. "I
wish they would ban it."

In any case, Southern California's main water supplier, the Los
Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District, is set to start adding
fluoride today to the drinking water supplies churned out by the
R.A. Skinner Plant near Temecula.

Metropolitan has already started adding fluoride in its other
four treatment plants in the last few months, meaning that nearly
18 million Southern Californians in six counties are now getting
fluoridated water.

In San Diego County, some areas don't buy Metropolitan's treated
water, and will continue to have little or no fluoridation,
including the city of San Diego, Oceanside, Poway, Olivenhain in
Encinitas, the Santa Fe Irrigation District, San Dieguito Water
District and Chula Vista's Sweetwater Authority. However, those
areas could soon be considering fluoridating their supplies. The
First Five Commission of San Diego allocated $5.7 million in
November to buy fluoridation equipment and supplies.

Metropolitan board members voted to start adding fluoride four
years ago in 2003, but waited until after spending billions of
dollars to upgrade its five treatment plants to implement fluoride
systems.

Long history

Grand Rapids, Mich., was the first U.S. community to purposely
add fluoride to its water supplies, in 1945 - after, according to
the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dentists
discovered low cavity rates in areas that had "significant amounts
of fluoride."

Since then, fluoridating community water supplies has been done
throughout the country - the CDC reported in 2002 that 60.5 percent
of all Americans received fluoridated water - but it has been slow
to come to California.

The recent push to fluoridate California water supplies dates
back at least 12 years, to then-Gov. Pete Wilson signing Assembly
Bill 733 into law in 1995. That measure required all water agencies
that served more than 10,000 customers to add fluoride to the water
"if money became available."

Because the mandate came without money to implement it, many
water agencies in California virtually ignored it.

But in 2000, the California Endowment, the state's largest
health foundation, put up $15 million for water agencies to use to
begin fluoridating. Part of that money was used by the city of
Escondido - the only community in San Diego County that currently
fluoridates - to start fluoridating in 2004. It is also funding
Metropolitan's fluoridation program.

Natural vs. synthetic

Metropolitan plans to add fluoride in amounts of 0.7 to 0.8
parts per million. Public health agencies say fluoridation is safe
and effective if done in small amounts, less than 1 part per
million.

According to the American Dental Association, fluoride
administered topically can stop dental decay and harden tooth
enamel to protect it from acidic decay. The association also says
that ingested fluoride can remain in saliva to protect teeth.

Fluoride can be a naturally occurring compound, such as calcium
fluoride. However, fluorosilicic acid, the fluoridation agent that
Metropolitan and many agencies add to their supplies, is a
synthetically produced fluoride. Opponents say synthetic fluoride
is a dangerous waste product of fertilizer manufacturing
companies.

Synthetically created fluorides have been used for decades in
toothpaste to reduce cavities.

Still controversial

While fluoridation has been embraced by public health agencies
and officials groups such as the National Cancer Institute, and the
dental associations - in part because they see it as the best way
to protect children and adults who can't afford to see dentists on
a regular basis - it has been, and remains, controversial for many
people.

Arguments against fluoridation have ranged from charges that it
would be used to make people docile and submissive, to health
worries that excessive fluoride consumption could cause everything
from fluorosis - a mottling of people's teeth - to cancer, kidney
problems, hip fractures and other problems.

Illustrating the enduring controversy around fluoridation,
Metropolitan declined requests to have pictures taken of workers
installing the fluoridation system at the Skinner Plant last week.
Metropolitan officials said they feared public perception problems
if photos showed workers wearing legally required protective
clothing.

The American Dental Association also issued a warning this year
that infants should not be fed baby formula with fluoridated tap
water to protect them from getting too much fluoride. In October,
California's Department of Public Health recommended that doctors
suspend prescribing fluoride supplements to patients in
Metropolitan's service areas for the next year to make sure they
don't get too much fluoride.